It would be easy to describe Eki Shola as a local musician — she lives in Santa Rosa — but her life and work unfold on a larger stage. The composer and singer records and performs in Japan and the United Kingdom, while also working as a physician treating U.S. military veterans abroad.
“Sometimes, I’m in both Japan and London all in the same month,” she said. “Sometimes, I alternate.”
That rhythm shapes her latest project, “Dare to Love Free,” a three-album cycle comprising 40 songs, released April 29 on Bandcamp. Much of the music was written during extended periods in Japan, without a predetermined concept. Instead, she began composing intuitively, allowing a theme to emerge over time.
What took shape was a meditation on freedom and, as she describes it, a conscious choice toward love over fear. Though the songs came quickly, the recording process did not; much of the past year was spent finishing, mixing and shaping the material.
The project is also reshaping how she performs. Rather than traditional concerts, Shola has designed a series of intimate, seated sessions in bookstores, music shops and small venues. The format blends listening with conversation, moving between recorded tracks, live piano and vocal accompaniment, and direct exchanges with audiences.
“I wanted to try something different and make it more interactive,” she said.
Some events include question-and-answer segments or collaborations with a DJ; others lean into what she describes as an “atmospheric listening experience.” The approach reflects both the scale of the project and her preference for connection over spectacle.
She performs all the material herself — singing and playing piano, keyboards, bass and percussion — continuing a body of work that now spans eight studio albums since 2016.
Francesco Echo
Eki Shola performs at the 2023 Gravenstein Apple Fair in Sebastopol. (Francesco Echo)
Eki Shola, right, with XXX at Studio Tepemok in Japan. (Courtesy of xxx)
A parallel career
Shola’s other career follows a similarly international path.
As a traveling physician, she works with a San Francisco-based organization providing care to U.S. military veterans, a role that regularly takes her to Europe and Asia. That work first brought her to Japan, where she discovered a recording studio housed in a converted hospital — an environment that, she said, suited the reflective tone of her writing.
Born in London to Jamaican parents, Shola grew up in a musical household before moving to New York in 1987. At Cornell University, where she studied pre-med, she also played in a jazz ensemble — an early indication of the dual paths she would continue to follow.
She settled in Sonoma County in 2010 and began releasing music a few years later, developing a practice that remains deliberately unstructured. Writing, she said, is often sparked by a melody or a line of lyrics, without a fixed schedule or deadline.
Looking back, she describes a shift in perspective: a growing openness to wherever the work leads, rather than a focus on specific outcomes.
“I’ve done more than I ever thought I would,” she said. “Whatever comes next, I’ll be open.”
This month’s tour follows that philosophy in motion. Shola will perform in Tokyo and Kyoto before returning to the Bay Area for a May 31 appearance at Couchdate in Oakland. Two dates in London follow in June, along with a July 8 performance at Grace Cathedral in San Francisco.
If you go
What: Bay Area appearances by Eki Shola
When and where:
4 p.m. May 31 — Couchdate, 5032 Telegraph Ave., Oakland
7 p.m. July 8 — Grace Cathedral, 1100 California St., San Francisco
More information: ekishola.com
AloJapan.com